Former Emmaus High student Dane DeHaan: "I was obsessed with acting"

Star of the new sci-fi film 'Chronicle,' Allentown native Dane DeHaan is on a roll, with three other films set for release this year and comparisons to Leonard DiCaprio

February 09, 2012|By Amy Longsdorf, Special to The Morning Call

For his senior year of high school, DeHaan left Emmaus and transferred to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He remained in North Carolina for college. Two weeks after he graduated, he landed a guest role on "Law and Order: SVU" and he hasn't stopping working since.

DeHaan's first big breakthrough was his Obie-winning performance as a lonesome high-schooler in "The Aliens," an off-Broadway play by Annie Baker.

"The play only ran for six weeks, but in those six weeks, we took over the New York theater scene," recalls the actor. "We got a rave review from The New York Times and people were lined up around the corner to get in to see the play, which we were doing in this 90-seat theater … It was a very special moment."

Starring in "The Aliens" helped land DeHaan a role in HBO's hit series "In Treatment" as a disturbed hipster who acts out sexually. The show, which previously helped launch Mia Wasikowska's career, allowed DeHaan to prove he had the acting chops of a major player.

"When you're surrounded by such amazing actors, you have to live up to them," he says. "Not only was I given this incredibly challenging material, but also the person after me on the show was Amy Ryan and the person before me was Debra Winger."

Following a three-episode run as a werepanther on the HBO series "True Blood," DeHaan moved to Los Angeles and almost instantly began landing one big movie role after another.

Recently, DeHaan and his "Wettest County" co-star Shia LaBeouf drove across country together. On the trip, DeHaan got a taste of the downside of fame.

"When we'd go to a restaurant, there would be people outside lining up to see the kid from 'Transformers,' " says DeHaan. "It was weird.

"I never really thought about that part of acting … right now, having maybe two or three people a day coming up to me, telling me that they like me a lot — that just kind of makes me feel good."

Helping DeHaan keep his feet on the ground is Anna Wood, an actress he met during high school in North Carolina. The couple just celebrated six years together.

"I'm lucky I met her before any of this really got too crazy," he says. "I know that I have somebody who sees me for the person I am, and have always been."

DeHaan says he gets back to the Lehigh Valley about once a year to spend time with his sister Meghann Carl, who lives in Emmaus. (His parents, who divorced when DeHaan went to college, left Zionsville a few years ago).

"I miss Yocco's," says the actor. "I think Allentown is amazing. I miss the parks. I'm a big golfer and growing up, there were tons of fairly affordable public golf courses.

"I never realized how beautiful Allentown was until I moved away and came back. There's so much farmland. I took it for granted. So when I go back, it kind of blows me away. It's so green and beautiful,"

While he's rarely in one place for long — his movies have shot all over the world from South Africa to Schnectady, New York — DeHaan now lives in Los Angeles, around the block from Allentown's Amanda Seyfried, whom he's never met.

A fan of James Dean, Al Pacino and Philip Seymour Hoffman, DeHaan is serious about his craft. In "Place Beyond The Pines," he plays a character who spends much of the movie riding around on a bicycle. Before production began, DeHaan decided to build his own bike from scratch and have it shipped to the set in Schenectady.

"I didn't want to have to act like that bike meant a lot to me," he says. "So I built one that did mean a lot to me."

DeHaan imagines he'll be an actor for the rest of his life. "I love so many aspects of [performing]," he says. "I love breaking down the script. I love being on the set. I love how much traveling I get to do and how much of the world I get to see.

"I love learning so much about people and how they work and where they're coming from … I love the ever-changing quality of it. You never know what'll happen next. And it's always an adventure."